Photography’s Place in the Global Art Market

Image

CreditLaurent Cilluffo

By Stephen Heyman

May 6, 2015

This past weekend, Paris Photo took over the back lots of Paramount Studios for its third annual American spinoff, Paris Photo L.A. Unlike the main fair at the Grand Palais in Paris, which takes place in November, this offshoot puts an emphasis on young and “emerging” photographers and makes the most of its Hollywood backdrop, with talks by filmmakers and a celebrity clientele whose purchases are duly reported in the local trade papers. Attendees have included Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Judd Apatow, Jodie Foster and Brad Pitt, who last year bought a picture by Danny Lyon, a photographer known for his black-and-white images of motorcycle gangs and civil rights protests in the 1960s.

As fashionable as it might be to own a work by Mr. Lyon — to say nothing of photographers like Cindy Sherman, Andreas Gursky or Richard Prince, whose pictures have fetched more than $1 million at auction — the medium of photography still represents a tiny fragment (about 2 percent) of the global art market. Last year, all the photographs that were sold at auction globally brought in about $180 million, greatly exceeding the high set before the art market crash of 2008, according to artprice.com.

As impressive as that sum seems, it can be exceeded by a single modern or contemporary evening sale at Christie’s or Sotheby’s. Indeed, as photography has rebounded over the past five years, its growth has been completely overshadowed by the runway success of 20th-century painting. The turnover of evening sales of modern and contemporary art in New York have increased by nearly 600 percent since 2009, according to the art market research firm ArtTactic. That increase is being driven by an influx of wealthy investors who view modern and contemporary art not only as a status symbol but also as a way to diversify their vast portfolios.

“Many of these new buyers are looking for unique, high-quality trophy art which has been driving prices of postwar and contemporary art to new heights,” said Anders Petterson, the managing director of ArtTactic. “There has definitely been a trickle-down effect of this on the photo market. However, as most photographic works are selling in the lower- to medium-end of the price spectrum and often in larger editions, there isn’t the same allure of this market to many of these buyers.”

This reality — along with the fact that the average auction price for photography is down 10 percent since 2008, to around $12,000 per picture — presents an opportunity for younger collectors, said Florence Bourgeois, the director of Paris Photo. “Photography is a medium that is more accessible to novice buyers and budding collectors. This is not just in terms of pricing or availability, but on another larger level,” said Ms. Bourgeois, who noted that Instagram and other photo-sharing sites make consuming photography a daily feature of modern life. “We can all connect to it in some way.”